KIWI BOAT BUILDER
DELIVERS A FLEET
OF WORKBOATS
BY KEITH INGRAM
J
ust prior to Christmas 2012, we witnessed a small fleet
of six boats arrive in Auckland from ProFab���s Palmerston
North boat yard for pre-delivery sea trials before being
loaded on a ship bound for Australia.
The six are two monohull Tim Barnett designed 9m workboats,
two Roger Hill designed 15m and 16m power cats, and a couple
of ProFab 6.5m alloy working dinghies.
It would be fair to say that Carl Ferguson, owner of
ProFab Central Engineering Limited who are known for their
OceanRaider boats, is one of our industry���s quiet achievers. CEL
have a very modern boat building facility capable of building
anything from a dinghy to a superyacht and many successful
builds in between.
Part of their success stems from the excellent pool of
skilled metalworking tradesmen and engineers that the company
employs; skills that move between boatbuilding and dairy factory
10 Professional Skipper March/April 2013
maintenance at will. Located in the middle of farming country,
where the cost of living is affordable and the pace of life relaxed,
this company has a competitive edge with a skilled labour force
right on its doorway. Granted, there is the cost of cranes and
trucking to delivery or launch sites, but these are known costs
when quoting jobs. It is their ability to turn out quality work
and to deliver on time and budget, that is ProFab���s key secret to
securing contracts, especially contracts out of Australia. To give
some idea; this was a nine month contract from the first plate
cut to delivery. No mean feat in anyone���s language: a six-boat
package, delivered on time and on budget.
We caught up with the vessels in Auckland as they were
completing acceptance sea trials just prior to being loaded on the
ship: destination Australia.
It was during sea trials with the owner and the Australian
surveyor onboard, that we overheard the best compliment a
